HBO Is Bringing You the Watchmen Series Nobody Asked For

Watchmen arrives next year amid other much-anticipated programming for HBO, including the return of True Detective and, most importantly, the arrival of the long-awaited final season of Game of Thrones.

Though plot details on the Watchmen series are still under wraps, Lindelof has stated that he has no desire to adapt the 12-issue comic book series by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons. Stephen Williams will also direct and executive produce, with Joseph Iberti and Tom Spezialy also executive producing.

Like the influential 1986-1987 comic, Watchmen is set in an alternate history in which "superheroes" are treated as outlaws.

The show comes from Damon Lindelof, the man behind Lost and The Leftovers so that's already a good sign. (Hap and Leonard), Tim Blake Nelson (Colossal), Adelaide Clemens (Rectify), Andrew Howard (Bates Motel), Frances Fisher (Masters of Sex), Jacob Ming-Trent (White Famous), Yahya Abdul-Mateen II (The Handmaid's Tale), Sara Vickers (The Crown), and Tom Mison (Sleepy Hollow). Per HBO, the new series "embraces the nostalgia of the original groundbreaking graphic novel while attempting to break new ground of its own". The story was adapted into a feature film by Zack Snyder back in 2009.

The original miniseries looms large in superhero comics, and has been revisited by DC in the 2012 prequel miniseries Before Watchmen and, currently, Doomsday Clock, which links the events and characters of Watchmen to DC Rebirth continuity. Remaining in that same world, the HBO series will now take place in the present day with new characters.